U.S. Pat. No. 4,422,681 (Laroche) issued Dec. 27, 1983 discloses an animal excrement picker which includes a handle with an elongated shank portion with a plate secured to the lower end thereof; a plurality of spikes are mounted to this plate and are enclosed in a housing that includes a top wall and a downwardly extending peripheral side wall; inside the housing, a perforated plate is provided with a series of openings, each in axial alignment with a respective spike; the top wall of the housing has a collar portion which frictionally engages the shank portion of the handle so that the spikes will remain in a lowermost position after having picked an excrement; a metallic plate may be added to the picker housing to close the open end thereof and is fixed thereto by means of magnets mounted to the side wall of the housing
The above design does not allow a visual placement of the element to be picked so that both picking and discarding are done blindly. It is not therefore visible whether the element has been properly picked up or that it has been fully ejected without having to turn the unit upside-down to inspect it.
The picker disclosed herein is more cost effective to manufacture/produce than the above prior art. The prior art device would cost a lot more to produce and is more difficult to operate and clean thoroughly.